The Sacramento region’s small family businesses took a beating in the recession. But thanks to economic and social shifts that occurred during that time — along with a boost from technology — they seem poised to bounce back.

Entrepreneurs now have more tools and opportunities — with free marketing through social media, free software on the web, and more business niches to pursue than ever before.

Just think, for instance, of all the entrepreneurs creating mobile apps or selling goods online without having to invest in a warehouse or large workforce.

The Affordable Care Act also may help some launch a small business because it promises they can get health insurance. Research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation suggests that health care reform could encourage 1.5 million Americans to strike out on their own in 2014.

Mom-and-pop businesses still face huge hurdles. The brutal fact is that most fail within a few years.

But beyond fulfilling the classic American dream of independence, owning a small business is increasingly attractive as large employers shed workers, said Bill Duthler, president of Sacramento SCORE.

That’s a big shift from three or four decades ago, when Americans sought job security by working for a large corporation such as General Electric Co. or Ford Motor Co.

The appeal also has increased because there are so many more niches of businesses these days, Duthler said. He thinks of the entrepreneurial options 30 years ago — such as being a barber, plumber and carpenter. Today, the options are broader, he said, citing one local entrepreneur who is thriving with a business of making truffles.

The potential for small businesses in the Sacramento region, Duthler said, may even have improved as a result of the recession: The weak players were weeded out.

“It’s a much more healthy foundation we have than before the downturn,” Duthler said.

Starting over

One way to measure the health of small family businesses is to look at statistics for “microbusinesses” — those with one to four employees.

The number of such companies in Sacramento-area ZIP codes declined 3.6 percent from 2008 to 2011, to 26,000, according to Warren Jensen, associate director for research at the Center for Economic Development at California State University Chico.

Data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, however, show that microbusinesses grew as a share of all companies — from 56.5 percent in 2005 to 57.4 percent in 2010. And the percentage of workers employed in microbusinesses also rose, from 4.9 percent to 5.6 percent.

For some entrepreneurs, the recession provided a chance — or an obligation — to start over.

For the Sjobeck family, it was some of both. Tim Sjobeck had a stable job with a Bay Area plumbing company, but his dad’s company — which provided plumbing for new-home construction — wasn’t going to survive the real estate collapse. In 2010, the two started a new business in Loomis providing plumbing and HVAC service. Today, their business is profitable and growing.

“We really didn’t have another option,” Sjobeck said.

Tony and Shannen Park also had to shift gears. Their coffee and yogurt shop in Downtown Plaza wasn’t going to last. So in 2008, they bought a struggling Sacramento restaurant, with plans of bringing it back to life. The two closed the other business, tripled sales at Rivers Edge Cafe & Espresso, and are now pursuing opening a second location in the Roseville area. They have done so well, in fact, that they have grown 9 to 25 employees.

“I knew I needed to get out of my situation because the business was going down and I had no control over it,” Tony Park said.

Optimism rising

Another positive sign for small businesses in the region is the range of organizations that offer help. These include SCORE, the Small Business Administration, California State University Sacramento and the nonprofit Small Business Development Center.

“I think we’re doing a lot, but we have to do more,” said Seung Bach, an associate professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship at Sacramento State.

Given that Sacramento SCORE typically counsels people at the earliest stages of creating a business, one of the organization’s primary jobs is to talk about reality and to offer caution, Duthler said. He estimates that only 5 to 10 percent of SCORE’s clients plan to proceed immediately.

Sacramento area small-business owners are gaining optimism about their position, and the percentage who expect to still be operating in six months is very high, Bach said.

They’re still not as optimistic as they were before the recession because, he noted, the Sacramento region has not fully recovered.

And not everyone views the landscape for small-business owners optimistically. The National Small Business Association says access to financing is a challenge, as are regulatory burdens, cost of health benefits and federal taxes.

Only about half of small businesses survive at least five years, and only one-third survive 10 years or more, according to the NSBA. Meanwhile, the country’s business startup rate — new businesses as a percentage of existing businesses — dropped below 8 percent in 2010, according to the Kauffman Foundation. That’s the lowest point on record. In the 1980s, the startup rate reached a high of 13 percent.

‘Almost scary’ growth

Sjobeck, who launched the Loomis plumbing company, understands the challenges.

“We didn’t anticipate how hard it would be,” he said.

After operating for 35 years in the Bay Area, father and son had to start from scratch creating a new business reputation, finding vendors, learning about social media marketing, and earning customers’ trust.

Their company — Crystal Blue Plumbing, Heating & Air — is six to nine months behind where Sjobeck hoped the business would be. But the company is profitable, it has three employees not counting himself and his dad, and momentum has been building the last four months, he said.

The company is adding another truck, will hire another worker within a month, and just signed a contract so big he admits to being intimidated by the challenge of ramping up.

“It’s almost scary how big it might be,” he said.

The Park family, meanwhile, never considered quitting. “Having your own business is the ultimate freedom for me,” Tony Park said.

He’s a fourth-generation small-business owner. Growing up in Sacramento, he helped his family in a series of businesses — billiards hall, bus terminal, doughnut shop, pizza parlor, video store and cafe.

It’s challenging working long hours with a spouse, and never turning off thoughts of the business.

While small-business ownership has become harder and more expensive, in some ways, marketing has gotten easier and cheaper, he said, and point-of-sale systems and gadgets such as the iPad Mini — used for quickly sending orders from the table to the kitchen — have improved customer service and added convenience.

Park said he’s made many mistakes and has spent a lot of money on marketing that didn’t work.

Now, though, the Parks effectively use social media and other approaches to obtain free marketing. Rivers Edge has not paid for marketing in two years. Instead, the Parks are active on social media, especially on Facebook with photos of food items and of the Park family, including the couple’s cute kids, ages 5 and 3. The Parks gather emails and use Constant Contact and a loyalty card program.

The Parks also developed relationships with TV producers and reporters, offering themselves for cooking demonstrations, eating challenges and holiday segments. In addition, the Parks network and are active in the community.

Park figures it is an advantage that he knew the neighborhood of the restaurant well, having grown up in the area.

Some do better than others

Success — and failure — cuts across all industries and geographies in the Sacramento area.

Of the 182 ZIP codes in the region, 52 added small employers from 2008 to 2011.

Areas that grew housing — and thus retail and services — showed up on the small-business growth list, including Elk Grove, the west side of Roseville and El Dorado Hills. So did ZIP codes in which business parks operate, including McClellan Business Park and the port area of West Sacramento, said Jensen of Chico State.

He was surprised that the corridor of older suburban Sacramento that includes Citrus Heights, Carmichael and Fair Oaks lost a large number of small businesses.

The industry types that saw sharp growth or declines in microbusinesses during the recession were a bit more predictable. Many businesses tied up in construction, home finance and real estate saw big drops.

That demonstrates, Jensen said, how hard Sacramento felt the real estate bust and how the region relied on the expansion of home construction.

But even some business types in real estate made the list of winners — such as residential property management microbusinesses, which added 56 firms for a 17 percent gain over those three years.

Of the 898 detailed industries with a presence in the Sacramento region either in 2008 or 2011, 312 added small businesses, or 35 percent, Jensen said.

“Even in a recession, there are industries that grow,” he said. “There’s always opportunities.”